(Revised Core Set Perspective)

I have tried to make this card work time and time again in tagstorm NBN: Making News but I think it's safe to say NBN should stick to always watching rather than responding.

Dedicated Response Team is a thematically awesome card that goes along well with Weyland's strategy of kicking down doors, burning down buildings, and sending in the Cleaners afterwards. It's often compared to the remaining tag punishment cards in the RCS: Private Security Force, Closed Accounts, and Psychographics. Score a Cleaners quickly and this can really gain some massive firepower with 3 damage per successful run.

The problem is just that though; for DRT to fire, it requires the runner to make a successful run. Compared to the other 3 tag punishment cards above, each can be used immediately after landing a tag on the runner with a SEA Source. As such, these punishment cards can be used at the corp's discretion.

As an asset, DRT suffers from having to be on standby. It requires tag support in the form of cards that will tag mid-run - any other time and the runner will remove the tag on their turn. Currently, Weyland does not have the support cards necessary as Shadow's subs are often broken due to its low strength and Hunter is often overlooked compared to other Weyland sentries like Archer or Caduceus which both come with ETR subs.

This card might find a home in NBN decks with plenty of tag-friendly cards like Data Raven, TGTBT, or Ghost Branch if it weren't for its high influence cost of 3. An NBN player has to make a decision whether to include a few of these cards for consistent flatlines (as 1 DRT will very rarely secure the flatline alone) or save the influence altogether. Not to mention having to protect the DRTs constantly from being trashed by support cards like Scrubber or Imp or a rich runner in general.

All in all, I feel a simple change to this card could have made it more consistent for corps to use (Weyland or NBN): Adding a "This applies even during the run on which the runner trashes Dedicated Response Team." like Strongbox or Red Herrings. But perhaps that's asking for too much.

(Revised Core Set Perspective)

Have you ever wondered why Anonymous Tip almost never sees play but its runner-counterpart Diesel is used often (in and out of RCS)? Yeah, me neither.

The answer is quite simplistic - drawing a card has more marginal value to the runner than the corp. The biggest reason, of course, is that the corp player already has a mandatory draw every turn while the runner needs draws to get their rig set up quickly and sway the game state in their favour as turns go on. Meanwhile, the corp player isn't fishing for more draws, but more of that $$ to power their ICE, rez their assets, and advance their agendas.

In addition, a runner using Diesel can at worst get dead draws and end up discarding them at the end of their turn. For a desperate agenda-flooded corp, an Anonymous Tip into 2 more agendas is the last thing they want to see.

At the end of the day, it confuses me why they even made this a faction-specific card if not only because of Diesel getting the green light. There's no evident or immediate synergies with the rest of the NBN suite so maybe Jinteki might find some use for it to set up Celebrity Gifts. At least, it's a point of influence cheaper than its counterpart.

(Revised Core Set Perspective)

This card has been severely nerfed since the Core Set due to one card's notable absence: Medium.

Without an in-faction multi-access (installed) card, Demolition Run only has one friend left: HQ Interface. Given that HQI is out-of-faction and doesn't quite offer the firepower that Medium once did, Demolition Run will see much less play than it did in the Original Core Set.

Still, HQI + Demo Run offers an interesting silver bullet for corp players that have operation-critical win conditions. I've never had so much fun than using the combo to pluck out 2 Biotic Labors from the corp's hand. Without HQI though, the card becomes little more than a one-time Imp.

Overall, a decent card when paired but the influence can get pricey as both cards run at 2 influence each. If you're spending 4 influence using the combo in Shaper, make sure it's because your meta asks for it.

(Revised Core Set Perspective)

A great addition to NBN's taxing arsenal.

This piece of ICE isn't meant to keep runners out as its strength withers at the sight of a mighty fracter. Instead, Wraparound is meant to save NBN one credit and get the same benefits as its neutral counterpart, Wall of Static. Battering Ram takes 2 to get past both. Morning Star is going to get past both for 1 too. So why use the Static Wall at all? Well if you know any Criminal players...

But, wait there's more! Wraparound is one of the first AI hate cards that beginners are introduced to in the Revised Core Set, along with Swordsman, costing Darwin 2 at 7 counters (Datasucker-less) and Crypsis 8. Unlike Swordsman though, this ICE's End the run subroutine still functions fine without any AI breakers on the board, making runners dig for that fracter ASAP. Meanwhile Swordsman becomes a minor nuisance to runners and loses its "ambush" the moment it's rezzed if there are no AI breakers available for it to slice.

In conclusion, Wraparound should be a x3 in any NBN deck and at 1 influence, deserves splashing in any other corp faction (with maybe the exception of Weyland who's already got plenty in barrier options). The 1 in rez savings may not seem like a lot in hindsight but it adds up, especially against Anarch opponents.

(Revised Core Set Perspective)

For original core players, the fact that criminals finally receive a decoder might overjoy some. That is, until the numbers are thoroughly analyzed and players realize that Peacock is only an Aurora with 1 more strength and some short and sweet flavour text.

Ah, but the benefit of a 2-strength decoder is underestimated. Of the 6 code gates in the Revised Core Set, 3 of them are strength 2 or lower and Tollbooth sits nicely at 5 for Peacock's strength boost only needed once. It's the HB bioroids where the feathery bird starts to show its weakness, being inefficient against the former and generally needing two 2 strength boosts to combat the latter.

Final consensus? Peacock already struggles with its strength inefficency but the final nail in the coffin is its 2 cost per subroutine. Notice how the common code gates you run into all have 2 subs and you generally want to be breaking both. Tollbooth may only have 1 sub but it's already got a 3 tax.

Overall, it works in a pinch and is cheap to install, but this shouldn't see any light of day outside of a Criminal deck due to its overall inflexibility. The 2 influence cost on the card just adds insult to injury.